For 40 years, Infor SunSystems has built a reputation as a powerful, flexible, and reliable financial management solution—one that “does exactly what it says on the tin.” If your organisation uses SunSystems, chances are you’ve faced the familiar upgrade dilemma: stick with your current version or invest in the latest release? And like many, you’ve likely delayed the decision due to concerns around cost, disruption, and limited resources.
But what if your next upgrade could be your last?
By moving to Infor SunSystems Cloud, you eliminate the need for future upgrades and gain a fully supported, always up-to-date platform. With versions 4, 5, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 reaching end-of-life by the end of 2025—and 6.4 receiving only security and bug fixes. Now is the time to rethink your upgrade strategy.
Below are what I view as 10 good reasons why moving to the SunSystems Cloud might be your business’ smartest move yet.
- The Last Upgrade You’ll Ever Need
A key advantage of moving to a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution is that automatic updates including security patches, bug fixes, and functional enhancements are continually delivered at scheduled intervals. Instead of bundling new features into major releases that require time-consuming and costly upgrades, new capabilities are rolled out incrementally.
The result? You avoid the expense of large-scale upgrades, reduce risk and disruption, and ensure your system stays secure and up to date—all while maintaining control over when and how new functionality is introduced into your business.
- No Infrastructure Needed
One of the biggest benefits of moving to the cloud is the elimination of costly on-premise infrastructure. With SunSystems Cloud, there’s no need to invest in hardware, servers, operating systems, databases, or in-house IT expertise to host and maintain the system these are all included in your annual subscription, saving tens of thousands of pounds.
As the software evolves, any additional computing power required is automatically delivered as part of your SaaS contract—meaning performance scales with your needs, without unexpected costs or manual upgrades.
- Planned Costs and Bang for Your Buck
As an on-premise client of SunSystems, you likely purchased a perpetual licence and pay an annual support and maintenance fee. If you’ve used the software for 10+ years without upgrading, you’ve likely spent more on support than the software itself, with limited return.
With SunSystems Cloud, you switch to an annual subscription model with 24×7 access to Infor’s support helpdesk for any Cloud-related issues, application software, and fault diagnosis and resolution. To support your implementation of SunSystems, you can add a managed service provided by your implementation partner, such as Touchstone. This means that your costs are smoothed out and can be planned for over a typical 3-5-year contract, enabling you to accurately budget with round-the-clock support as standard.
- Infor OS Included
- One of Infor’s major innovations is Infor OS, a digital transformation platform that underpins their key strategic solutions like SunSystems Cloud. With SunSystems Cloud, Infor OS is included as standard, enabling smaller users to experience the power of Infor OS that was once out of reach. ION Workflow: Build custom business rules, authorisations, process routes, and alerts.
- ION Integration Services: Connect Infor and non-Infor applications with real-time, web-based integrations enabling you to join up your software
- IDM (Infor Document Management): Store, archive, and retrieve all business documents that relate to any financial account or transaction.
- Enterprise UX: A unified, intuitive interface that delivers only relevant, subscribed information to individual users.
- Mobile Access: Designed for today’s workforce, Infor OS is fully functional on mobile devices.
- Scalability
On-premise solutions, especially older versions that haven’t been upgraded, can quickly become a barrier, limiting agility and scalability when it’s needed most.
By moving to SunSystems Cloud and leveraging Infor OS, you gain a platform designed to grow with you. Whether it’s increased users, new functionality, or integration with other tools, the cloud delivers the flexibility to scale without disruption.
- Accessibility and Agility
The need for business agility has never been more critical with a continual shift to hybrid working post-pandemic. Cloud solutions offer unmatched flexibility, giving teams secure, anytime-anywhere access to business systems.
With SunSystems Cloud, users can securely access both SunSystems and Q&A directly through their web browser. There’s no need for additional software or complex setups—just simple, secure access that supports modern working patterns and gives your business the agility it needs to thrive.
- Resilience and Reliability
In the Infor Cloud (powered by AWS), SunSystems Cloud is continuously monitored to ensure it runs smoothly and efficiently. Any performance issues, such as CPU bottlenecks during peak times, are quickly identified and resolved, something rarely possible in on-premise setups without costly investment in technology and computing power.
A key advantage of SaaS is built-in resilience, elasticity, and high availability. If the primary system fails, there’s automatic failover to a secondary system with minimal or no data loss. Achieving this on-premise is often complex, costly, and prohibitive.
- Security
Security is a major concern for most businesses especially as ransomware attacks increasingly target SMEs, which often lack the resources and tools that larger enterprises use for protection. Add to this the burden of compliance and legislation such as GDPR placed on businesses to protect data, with significant penalties for any infractions, then security becomes a significant cost to the business.
For on-premise systems, IT teams must constantly manage patches and updates from Microsoft and software authors to keep systems updated. Where no dedicated IT team exists, many businesses take the risk that their basic level of security will protect them, quite often it doesn’t.
In the SaaS world, this burden is lifted. Security updates and patches are handled automatically during scheduled maintenance windows.
- Multiple Environments
Many financial management systems tend to stagnate after implementation. As the business evolves, the FMS often doesn’t keep pace primarily because there’s no safe environment to test new features or enhancements. With only a live system to work in, few are willing to risk disruption, which leads to stalled development and a growing gap between business needs and system capabilities.
SunSystems Cloud removes this barrier. Included in your subscription are three separate environments: LIVE, TEST, and DEV. These environments can be refreshed with live data at regular intervals, allowing you to trial new functionality, develop enhancements, and train users in a safe, isolated space—without impacting daily operations.
- Total Cost of Ownership
As with most innovations, early pricing is often high due to limited competition. But as technology matures and traditional models decline, more cost-effective options emerge.
The subscription model for SunSystems Cloud is now far more attractive than a large upfront investment in a perpetual licence and then paying support and maintenance in addition.
I have purposefully left cost of ownership to the end of this piece because whilst cost is always a factor, it shouldn’t be the main driver. For many, switching from an ageing on-premise system with rising maintenance and support costs to a modern SaaS subscription can be more cost effective and with added benefits.
So, when you take all the above into consideration, moving to SunSystems Cloud becomes a bit of a “no brainer”. I would therefore urge all SunSystems users to think seriously about SunSystems Cloud, it truly is the last upgrade you will ever have to do.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help you migrate to SunSystems Cloud, or would like some advice when building your business case then please feel free to contact my team by filling out the form below, we will be delighted to help you.
